


Promises

by Ninja_Librarian



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Happy Birthday Keith!, Keith's a kiddo in this one, Predominately fluff but a teeny tiny bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 21:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12466216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ninja_Librarian/pseuds/Ninja_Librarian
Summary: Keith is five years old, a big kid now.His Papa has a special, big kid birthday present for him, too. One that's also from his Mama.Little did Keith know, this gift would come with a promise to keep, a secret to hold, and be the last he ever got from his father.But Keith was a big kid now. He could keep his promises.





	Promises

Keith woke up to the smell of bacon frying and chocolate chip pancakes, and the sound of his father humming. He rubbed sleep from his eyes with one fist, the other still protectively clenched around the leg of his stuffed hippo, before his feet hit the floor of the small shack, rushing over to throw his arms around his father’s waist from behind, plushy and all.

“Oomph!” His father grunted, then laughed, his large hand coming down onto Keith’s head. “Mornin’, birthday boy!”

“Morin’, Papa!” Keith said, grinning up at his father, a front tooth missing. He held his arms up and his father chuckled but obliged, setting down the spatula to pick Keith up and set him on his hip with a grunt.

“You’re gettin’ too big for this, son,” Papa said, pressing a kiss to Keith’s temple.

“’Course I’m gettin’ big!” Keith said excitedly. He held up a hand, fingers spread wide. “I’m five years old now!”

“Practically an adult, aren’t ya?” Papa said.

Keith nodded. “I’m gonna be as big as you soon!”

“Yeah, buddy, you are,” Papa said, his smile dropping some. He gave Keith another kiss on the head, then set him down, saying, “Now go get cleaned up, your breakfast is almost ready.”

Keith scurried off to the small bathroom and washed his face and hands, hungry and excited in anticipation of the food. His eyes widened at seeing the size of the stack that awaited him, but also at the new toy truck and toy plane that were sitting beside the plate as well. Both were red, which was perfect, because red was the fastest.

“Thank you, Papa!” Keith said, throwing his arms around his father again.

 

“You’re welcome, son,” Papa said. “You can play with ‘em after breakfast.”

With that, father and son dug into their breakfasts.

“Now, Keith,” Papa said as they ate their pancakes and bacon. “I’ve got another, special, big boy birthday present for you. But it’s mostly from your Mama, so we’ve got to wait until tonight for her. Can you wait that long?”

“I can wait for Mama!” Keith said, nodding his head excitedly.

He loved Mama time. It was his favorite time of day.

Although… Some days he wished that his Mama would come down from the stars, just for a little while, so she could join in the snuggling and star gazing and story-telling, too. He knew she was busy, protecting the whole universe from bad guys, but he just wanted her to come visit for a while.

Maybe… Maybe just maybe, that was what his special big boy present was! Mama coming!

After a long day of playing with his new toys, following Papa around the desert, and chores, it was finally time.

Keith loved that his birthday was in fall, because that meant that the sun started to set earlier. And that meant Mama time came earlier. He could barely wait for dinner to be finished, scarfing down the food then rushing to gather the blankets and hurrying his father along.

“Come on, it’s Mama time!” Keith said, tugging on his father’s arm.

“And you’ve got mashed taters in your hair,” Papa said, chuckling. “Now what do you think your Mama is gonna say when she sees that?”

Keith rushed to the bathroom to clean the food out of his hair. He ran back to the shack’s kitchen, and smiled at the fact that his father was no longer seated at the dining room table, but pulling something out of a high cabinet above the stove.

Papa tucked a box under his arm and said, “Alright, son, I know you’re ready. Let’s not keep your Mama waitin’…”

Keith pushed open the door, holding out the blanket for his father to wrap up in. Once the blanket was around Papa’s shoulders, he sat down in the rocking chair and patted his leg for Keith to climb up on, the blanket wrapping around Keith as he snuggled in.

They were quiet for a while, listening to the sounds of the desert at night, watching the stars twinkle above them.

Then Keith broke the silence and asked, “Where’s Mama tonight? Is she coming here?”

“Sorry, son,” Papa said, squeezing Keith a bit tighter. “Your Mama wanted to be here, but her big meanie boss won’t let her. If it was up to her, she’d be here today, and every day. She misses you, buddy.” Papa shifted slightly, reaching down to pick up the box he had brought out. “But that’s why she wanted you to have this.” He placed the box in Keith’s lap and said, “Go ahead and open it.”

Keith tugged at the red ribbon, and the bow fell apart. He lifted the lid and his eyes widened.

“Whoa…” He breathed. “This is for me?”

“This is for you,” Papa confirmed. “Your Mama wanted you to have this when you were big enough. It’s your birthright.”

Keith carefully reached in and picked up the sheathed dagger, slowly tugging it out to look at the gleaming blade. “This is from Mama?”

“Yep,” Papa said. “And it was hers before you were born. She knows that she can’t always be here for you, but she wants you to have this blade and know that she’s always with you, always wants to keep you safe.”

“It’s so cool!” Keith said, trailing his finger over the symbol near the hilt. “What does this symbol mean?”

“Your Mama wouldn’t tell me,” Papa admitted. “Just that it’s part of a secret. She said, someday, she’ll come and tell you about it. But until then, you just keep this here knife safe, and it’ll do the same for you, got that?”

“Uh huh!” Keith said, nodding.

“That being said, there are still rules that go with it,” Papa said. “Even though you’re a big boy, I still want to be around when you use it to make sure you don’t hurt yourself. I’ll show you how to use it and clean it and take care of it. But there’s one, really big rule above everything else.”

“What’s that, Papa?” Keith asked.

His father looked him directly in the eye and said, “You don’t show this knife to anyone. Got that? Especially not that symbol. It’s dangerous if the wrong people know about it. Promise me, Keith, you won’t tell anyone about the knife.”

“I promise,” Keith said seriously. “And you can trust me, Papa, ‘cause I’m a big boy and big boy’s keep their promises.”

“I know that, son, I know…” Papa said, holding Keith to him, the five-year-old hugging the sheathed blade to his chest as they rocked back and forth on the porch.

Keith didn’t know it, but that was the last birthday he spent with his dad, who disappeared several months later.

While the social worker helped him pack his backpack to move out of the shack and into the group home, Keith took his knife into the small bathroom, grabbing bandages out of the small medicine cabinet and wrapped them around the symbol on his knife, then stuck the sheathed blade under his shirt.

He’d keep his promise to his Papa; no one would know about the knife. Not the social worker, not the parade of foster parents that followed, not his teachers, not the Garrison. Not even Shiro, his friend and mentor.

No one.

This was his secret to guard.

And, later, he would learn that it was his destiny to follow in the potentially fictional footsteps of his mother, follow the stories his father told him of how she protected galaxies.

He didn’t know where his father was. He never really knew his mother.

But he’d make them both proud.


End file.
